I’m Gonna Need a New Pair of Pants
When I was growing up there was a show called “Are You Afraid of the Dark?” that focused around a group of teenagers who named themselves “The Midnight Society” This group would all meet together on a certain night back in the woods around a campfire to tell stories. I know what you’re thinking. It was the 90s, a carefree time when random groups of teenagers could sneak out of their house, meet in the woods and tell each other stories of the paranormal. So maybe the concept isn’t airtight, but it made for a captivating show for me and my friends. Each episode would open with some spooky music and images followed by shots of the group around the fire. There was always one storyteller who, after giving a short introduction to the theme of the story, would reach into a leather bag to pull out a handful of powder which they then thrust into the fire causing a cloud of white smoke. It was probably just coffee creamer or sugar…but it was cool! Then they announced the name of their story saying “The Tale of…” and whatever it was. Was I afraid of the dark? Nope…but you can sure bet that whatever story they were going to tell was going to freak me out. It didn’t stop me from watching it though because let’s face it. It wasn’t that scary.
What are you afraid of? Perhaps it’s bugs or snakes. I have a few friends that get freaked out by them. Anyone have a fear of heights or falling? I get a little nervous on rickety old ladders. Perhaps you’re afraid of someone dressed up in a costume. Lauren, my wife, can’t handle that very well. We went to Red Robin for a date one time and the person in the robin costume got a little too dangerously close to the table. I had to move the silverware away from her because I was concerned for that person’s safety. I didn’t want there to be a scene because I kind of like Red Robin and I wanted to be welcomed back. We all have those types of fears. Those things that sort of freak us out. What else are you afraid of though? I’m willing to bet there is more. Personally, I’m afraid that sometimes I’m not good enough. I’m also afraid that if I don’t work harder, or try and be more that I’ll fail those who are closest to me. We all have these types of fears too, deep within us, whether we know they are there or not. Their effects may not be noticeable, but they can have lasting impacts on the way that we interact with each other and the way that we interact with God.
One of my favorite sets of movies are the Star Wars movies. In the first movie of the newer trilogy, the Phantom Menace, young Anakin Skywalker is before the Jedi council for his testing. They sense fear within him and point it out. Anakin responds with “What’s that got to do with anything?” Then Master Yoda responds with this classic line: “Everything! Fear is the path to the Dark Side. Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering.” Fear leads to anger. When our fears take over our whole being and is the most prevalent thing, anger is close by. Fear can also immobilize us. We become like those characters in a scary movie. You know the one…the one the whole audience is yelling at to move, to run, to fight, “watch out,” do something! Don’t just stand there! When fear consumes and defines who we are it’s never a good thing. We’re stuck. We’re closed off. It’s really hard for there to be any peace.
The disciples in our gospel today are afraid and rightly so. They’re in a middle of a boat out in the dark, on the sea being hammered by a storm. The boat is filling up with water and they are bailing and working as hard as they can to keep the ship afloat. Many of them are sailors and have been doing this their whole life, but at this point nothing seems to be working. But Jesus is with them! Though he’s asleep… Out of their fear they wake him up, but they have already moved past just being afraid. If they were merely afraid they may have woken him up handed him a bucket and said something like “Yo, Jesus we could use your help here” or “Hey Jesus…Rabbi, do you mind waking up and helping?” Instead they are angry and center their fear and concern on him “Teacher, do you care that we are perishing?” They accuse Jesus of not caring.
Job also had his questions of God. The reading that we heard is God’s response, but what is important to note are the chapters and chapters before this where Job’s “friends” are dissing God and Job is wondering “God, why have you abandoned me? Things were going well and then you just up and left me to rot out here and die” Job also accused God out of his anger and fear. Both of these stories point to the fact that a great way to get God to respond is to be accusatory. Personally, I would prefer God’s response in Jesus versus the one from Job. If you know me, I like questions, but God’s questioning of Job would just be too much!
There is this interesting relationship between faith and fear or faith and anger. We tend to think of them in absolutes. You either have one or the other. In all truthfulness we can and often do have both. We can be angry at God because God can handle it. We can also be fearful, but still have faith in God. It’s when the fear becomes the dominant force, when the fear crowds out and replaces how God defines us that it becomes a problem. We can yell and scream and stomp our feet, shake our fists, cry and pitch the upmost tantrum at God and it’s alright. Those are natural emotions. It’s when we cross into the place where we look at the creator of the universe who loves us and cares for us and accuse God of not caring that things get complicated. In those moments we’re wrapped in ourselves. It’s all about us. We can’t see past our hurt and our pain.
It’s in those moments that God acts. Though it’s not how we expect. We need to be broken out of the place we are at and God comes to us and does just that. It’s in a way that shakes us up. God says “Peace! Be Still!” Thus, the title of the sermon. If I was one of the disciples on that boat and heard those words and saw the sea immediately become calm and the wind go away completely, I would need a new pair of pants. I can just see the disciple’s jaw dropping along with their arms that were busy bailing water just a few moments earlier. Maybe even one of them pinched or punched the guy next to him in the arm just to see if this was all for real. If God confronted me like Job and started asking me out of a whirlwind “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?”Right after God said “Gird up your loins like a man” I would be searching for a new something to gird my loins with. God knows that we can’t get out of where we are at sometimes. God knows we need help, but God will also want to know “Why are you afraid?”.
God first shakes us up, “Peace! Be Still!” and then when we find new pants and God has our attention God speaks to us: You are my precious child. I love you. I made you. I care for you more than you will ever know or understand. Why are you afraid? I am here with you. I am the one who made you. I am. Peace. Be still. Our fears that trapped us, that immobilized us, that made us angry are replaced by a different sort of fear. It’s called awe. We are in awe of a God who love us even when we are wrapped in ourselves. We are in awe of a God who is bigger than everything. We are in awe that God comes to us and cares enough to question us, to shake us up, to break us free. God has bigger plans for us than we can ever imagine for ourselves, beyond our dreams and beyond our fears.
That plan is for us as God’s children to go out and speak the words “Peace! Be Still!” in the world. To be a channel of peace. To know that there is fear inside us all but despite that tell the story of a God that is way bigger. It’s God’s peace that we are channeling, not our own. We don’t go out to say “look at how peaceful I am, God gave this to me” but rather to go out and tell of a God who shook up our lives with a powerful word of peace. A God who loves and is doing some powerful things in this world. We are called to go and help to channel that. We won’t be perfect at it, but God is constantly calling us out. Giving us new reasons to search for new pants. Giving us reminders of how God is bigger than we are and that’s why God is God and we are not. Thanks be to God for that! May we pull on some new pants and go out to channel peace. May we be shaken up by God in new ways. And may we always receive reminders that God is bigger and God is more. Amen
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